Christmas Confusion

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast, making Theology Central. Well, is it the most wonderful time of the year? Do you love the Christmas season? Do you love it? Now? There are lots of reasons people may have for not being excited about the Christmas season. There are a lot of things, emotional, things in your past, your history that could really make you very depressed when it comes to Christmas time. I think there's a lot of people who can just say it's not the most wonderful time of the year. Some may go so far to say it's the worst time of the year. There's just a lot of baggage some people have when it comes to Christmas and the Christmas season.

0:53 A lot of people find great joy in it. They love it. Many people who attend church, they love the Christmas season. But for me, I it's not the most wonderful time of the year. It is not. It is not. First, I have my own baggage that I bring to the Christmas season because of things happening in my that happened in my childhood, things that happened to me as I was growing up. So I'm not a fan of the season for that reason. But when I became a Christian, I thought, Okay, now Christmas is going to be this beautiful thing, right, because you know, it's that time of the year where we will talk about the the incarnation, talk about the birth of Christ, you know, and and all of this, all of these things, a savior has come, and just all the philological issues and the things in the Bible and doctrine and salvation, it'll be it'll be wonderful.

1:50 And then I found out that even within the Christian world, it's still not the most wonderful time of the year because you become a Christian and then you've got all these people within Christianity fighting over everything about Christmas. Well, should we celebrate this, should we do this? Should we do this? Should we do this? Oh, Christmas is a pagan holiday. We shouldn't even be celebrating it. You should not have a Christmas tree. It goes back to the book of Jeremiah. It's idolatry. You shouldn't even have one. Others were like, no, the Christmas tree goes comes from Germany and Luther and it's supposed to show the glory of God. And so it's a great thing, well, no, we should, well, should we have church on Christmas? Should we not have church on Christmas? All just the arguments and argument, and then finally you're like, you know what, so outside of Christianity, it's not the most wonderful time of the year because I've got all of this baggage, all of these emotions. It's depressing, it's discouraging. I don't like it, and then I'll become a Christian. And then it's debating and fighting about this and fighting about that and this and that. And then on top of all of that, so you've got the debates, you've got the baggage, and then sometimes you just have things that are just irritating because you have pastors, teachers who sometimes say things around the Christmas season that's just not accurate. And we're going to talk about some of this right after I

3:22 say welcome everyone, Good evening everyone. It is Tuesday, December the tenth, twenty twenty four. It is currently eight forty one pm Central time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central Studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, if you were to drive past the studio of Theology Central, you would look and go they love Christmas. There are I don't know how many I'm dropping things here. There's probably don't I don't want to give a wrong number. Maybe thirty thirty five big Christmas and flatables right here in the front of the studio there. I mean, they're like, I don't know. The news the local news came and covered all of the Christmas inflatables we have here. Has nothing to do with me. Someone else does that, but but it's there, So you would drive by, going, man, they love Christmas. But the person you can you see all those Christian Christian, all those Christmas inflatables, and if you look above, you'll see a light right there by the window, a very bright light. That's the studio light.

4:31 And well in that window is someone who's not necessarily a fan of Christmas. I want to be, like, there's a part of me that wants to be. But then there's all this baggage and so many things. I do have some some fond Christmas memories I do. I do have some fond ones I do that I really cling to and hold to. But then because some of those were really good, you kind of want to you want to recap those, you want you want to re experience it, and you're never going to experience it again. You're never going to capture it again. That magic is a one time thing, and it comes and it goes, and then you live your life. In many cases almost it just Christmas just kind of reminds you of what once was, but it's gone or what was briefly there and it disappeared quickly, and the rest of the Christmases are filled with horrible memories. Okay, so there's the baggage. Just really, I guess caused me great it ruined it greatly for me.

5:34 I still tried to find some good ones even after all the things that happened to me. But it can still just be depressing and discouraging. But man, I had no idea that when I became a Christian that Christmas was going to be just never ending battle. I mean, if you just look on the sermon's two point, oh app, I guarantee you before Christmas occurs, there will be messages about it's a Satanic holiday, it's a Catholic holiday, it's a pagan holiday. You shouldn't even be celebrating it. It's wrong, it's ungodly. December the twenty fifth was taking from a pagan god, and just on and on and on and on and on, and it shouldn't be Santa Claus, it should be Satan Clause. And the Christmas tree is a pagan idol and just goes and he's just like, oh man, so and then people say there's nothing in the Bible that says you should celebrate Christmas, and like, well, there's nothing in the Bible issues you should celebrate this or this or this or this, And then you get in just these debates and it just it's maddening. You just want to throw your hands at go So what can I do? Can anyone tell me what I'm allowed to do?

6:38 Because I don't know? So it just and then, as I stated in my intro, sometimes it's just the frustrating thing. So here's what we're gonna do this evening. I've kind of repeated myself there, but that's okay. I have a sermon. Someone sent me this sermon. They sent me that some times stamps about some different things that were spoken of, and this sermon is not a I can't say that this is the best example, but I didn't really Every year I feel like I have to do a message like this, and I don't really like doing the message just like this, but at the same time, I feel that it's necessary because you always have new listeners or you have listeners who completely forgot that you covered this last year, two years ago, three years ago, four years ago.

7:26 But every year I almost have to turn on the microphone at least once during the Christmas season and say, hey, guys, when we refer to the birth of Christ, when we refer to the virgin birth, when we refer to the incarnation, there's a certain term that doesn't mean what many pastors and teachers seem to think it means, and what many Christians seem to think it means. There's a term we're going to have to look at and I have to offer a correction. So the sermon that was sent to me at least mentions it, and it doesn't go into any great das tell But I thought, okay, I can just use this one. I can just use this one and talk about some of the issues and then hopefully that will be enough. Hopefully that will suffice, hope, hopefully that will be it'll do what it needs to do.

8:15 Sometimes it makes some people mad, but I think for the most part, I think people. I think people tend to appreciate. I hope maybe I'm being naive. I always like to believe that people go, man, i've used that term, or I've heard my pastor use that term. Thank you for correcting us because we've been using the term incorrectly, and so I always hope that I'm actually helping. I think some people feel like I'm attacking. Now. Look, do I get frustrated, yes, Do I get irritated yes. Do I think that there's not really an excuse, Yeah, I don't really think there's an excuse. But at the same time, I just want people to stop and just be careful with what we say so that we can be somewhat accurate.

8:58 That's all I'm attempting to do. So we're just going to jump in. This is one of the I had no desire to review the entire sermon, right, I don't have the exact timestamp for the entire sermon, but it would be you know, three four five hours of review. I mean, this could go over an hour just right here. But we're just gonna start kind of in the middle. He's dealing with different passages, dealing with ultimately the coming of Christ, the Birth of Christ. And so he's getting ready to go to a very famous passage that you know in the Old Testament. I bet you can already guess. And he's going to make some statements and claims. Will we will look at some of those claims, and then there's just this one quote. It goes by like half a second, boom, it's just going to be there and gone, and he's going to use a term. You may not even realize it, you may not even catch it, but it bothers me greatly, and it's just one of the many things that causes me to have major issues with Christmas time. I wish that wasn't the case, but it really is. So let's just jump in and we're just going to see what happens. Hopefully this goes smoothly. I hope it does. I've got I got some notes. I got a very important book right here. Okay, you don't know what it is, but I have it. It's a lot of pages. It's a lot of pages in this thing, about over nine hundred pages, but I have it ready to go, all right. Also have a Bible, okay, have my Bible, all right, So we'll see all right, I

10:32 got my iPad. Here, got the blue letter Bible app open in case we need to look up any Hebrew, because it's going to be a passage from the Old Testament. And let's see what happens. Here we go. Well, the anticipation continues, how he was born Isaiah seven fourteen and nine six. I'm gonna read Isaiah seven fourteen again. It says, therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name am Manuel. Okay, again context this has to deal where aas is threatened by Israel and Syria.

11:22 But in light of this, God gives a sign. A virgin conceives a son is born. He is called a Manuel. Now you know what, I've got commentaries. I looked at all kinds of stuff, and you know, scholars, critics, commentaries. They describe Isaiah seven fourteen is very difficult. And one of the reasons is is because of this word that we find here, virgin, virgin. The meaning of that word, Well, you know what, it's only difficult if you allow it to be difficult. Oh boy, here we go. First of all, I do appreciate that he mentions context here. I do appreciate that he actually puts it in some form of historical context.

12:12 I'm not a fan. Well, all these commentaries and all these people they say it's difficult. Well, it's only difficult if you make it difficult. Oh that drives me great. Maybe it's maybe it's just actually difficult. I know that that's not allowed. It's so weird. Sometimes in preaching, sometimes preachers will run to a commentary, right, and then other times they criticize all the commentaries. Right. It's like they will run to a commentary and use the commentary if they agree with it. They may not even tell the congregation that eighty percent of their sermon came from their favorite commentary. They may not even tell anyone. Pastors constantly will run to commentaries, but the minute they disagree with it, then all these commentaries they think it's complicated. It's only complicated if you make it complicated. So are the commentaries good or the commentaries bad? Well? You know, see, you know what the reality is that the writers of commentaries have no authority because we get to determine if the writers of the commentaries are right or wrong. They may have spent fifty years studying something. They may be the experts, but hey, if we disagree, we become the experts. I just I just find it. It's so just weird. Again, we talked about, you know, pastors versus podcasts, and we talked about authority and who really has authority. And this is just a good example. I've got commentary after commentary says it's complicated. Uh, well, it's only complicated if you make it complicated. It's not complicated. Why because he says

13:44 it's not complicated, Because I bet you he's done extensive work in the Hebrew language and extensive work and everything about Isaiah. Now I understand that we you could make an argument, and this is how I would and to state this, Maybe there is something complicated about Isaiah. I mean there's a lot of things complicated by about Isaiah. If you've ever studied the book in any depth, I mean, there's a lot of things that can be confusing and confounding it. I mean that's true of the entire Bible, if you're really gonna be honest. But maybe, just maybe there is something confusing about Isaiah seven. Because many commentators and Bible scholars have mentioned this, maybe though it's not complicated.

14:33 If we go to the New Testament, see how they quote it and how they're using it, then maybe from that perspective, the New Testament clears it up or clarifies it. But that doesn't mean that there's something maybe not inherently confusing or difficult about Isaiah seven itself. It's okay to say, hey, this can be confusing, this can be difficult. I don't know why pastors are afraid to say that. They're like, oh, I can't tell the people that this could be a confusing and difficulty. Yes you can. What pastors love to do is people say this is confusing, but it's actually very simple. Let me explain it to you, so that they come across as see all these other people out there don't know. But I know, I think in many cases, maybe there's something complicated here, and maybe that complication can be clarified when we go to the New Testament and go they use it this way. Well, if we believe the New Testament is inspired scripture, well then we would have to then accept I know this is kind of a presuppositional bias, but if our presupposition is that the Bible's inspired, well then we would have to say, well, the inspired New Testament writers interpret Isaiah seven the use of the word virgin in a very specific way. But okay, let's say what he does and how he tries to explain this. So you know, I looked at this word.

16:02 It's the Hebrew word Almah, and it has several meanings depending on the context. Let me give you an example. Alma virgin may mean a young woman of marriageable age. It might mean a maiden. You find that in Proverbs thirty nineteen. It might simply mean a girl Exodus two to eight. Or could it mean virgin. Now some say, well, this word is not an explicit Hebrew term for virgin, But listen to this, listen to closely. Genesis twenty four forty three describes not only a young woman of marriageable age, but one who is undoubtedly a virgin, and her name was Rebecca. So the word alma carries the meaning of a literal virgin. Long story short, Scholars don't like simple answers that way, they couldn't write books that thick.

17:09 Oh wow, yeah, that's it. Scholars just don't like simple answers because they can't write thick books. So we don't need those thick books because it's really quite simple. Now, it sounded like it was quoting something, right, sounded like he was quoting something because if you look in an antilinear like on the blue letter Bible app if you look at the antilinear. Okay, there is no instance where it can be proved that Alma designates a young woman who is not a virgin. The fact of virginity is obvious in Genesis twenty four to forty three, where Alma is used of one who was being sought as a bride for Isaac. That's from the Philological work Book of the Old Testament, page six hundred and seventy two. Sounds like that's in a thick book. Maybe they just don't like simplistic answers. I mean when he got it sounded like he was reading something right. Now, maybe he wasn't, but that sounds very similar to what that was. That sounds almost like a paraphrase of that. So, but maybe others think that it's complicated. I don't like that. See. Oh, we love to just anyone anyone we disagree with. No, we almost mock their education. Oh, those scholars, they write these thick books, but they're really dumb because they don't believe what we believe. But in other cases, when we need an argument to be made, then we'll quote from the so called scholars to prove our point. I don't care.

18:39 I don't oh man, I can't stand this way of thinking. If we look at the concepts, just so that you know, there are interpretive difficulties surrounding the use of the word virgin in Isaiah seven fourteen. And this is due primarily to linguistic, historical, and theological factors, all right, And if you just even ask Ai to explain some of these problems, it's going to go through here the controversy, this is Ai. The controversy centers on the Hebrew word Almah, used in Isaiah seven fourteen, which says, therefore the Lord himself, She'll give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive Embars's son, and she'll call his name Emmanuel Almah. The word means young woman of marriageable age and does not explicitly denote virginity. Well, it often implies virginity, and context it is is not as specific as the Hebrew word another Hebrew word, which unambiguously means virgin. So there's a different Hebrew word that is just clear that means virgin, but that's not used in Isaiah seven fourteen. I mean, that's just something that has to be acknowledged. Or did I say Hebrews Isaiah seven fourteen. I don't know why. If I'm saying Hebrews, I don't know why. All right. So some would argue that if Isaiah wanted to make the point of virginity, he could have viewed the Hebrew word that would be unambiguous and say that's the Hebrew word we use for virgin.

20:06 For some reason, the writer of Isaiah, Isaiah the it does not use that term. Why. I mean, that's a question that can be asked. The linguistic nuance has led some to question whether Isaiah seven fourteen originally intended to predict a virgin birth. Now we could I mean, and this gets into questions, right, there's a context here, Right, there's a context. Is it possible that Isaiah seven fourteen, and its original context to the original recipients, was looking for a birth different than how the New Testament writers use Isaiah later on? In other words, is it possible that Isaiah seven fourteen had two in a sense prophecies, one that was closer to that time, which would have been real event, and then one that ultimately pointed to Christ.

21:03 And so therefore the term used could use to someone who isn't a virgin, or use it to refer to someone who is. And in the New Testament, Isaiah seven fourteen is used to point to the virgin birth of Christ because Mary was a virgin, right and so, and the New Testament makes that clear. But in the historical context, maybe it was pointing to a woman who was going to give birth and it was going to be something different. It was it was the first stage and the fulfillment. I mean, can we even consider that as a possibility or is that too complicated? Now? If we look at the Greek translator translation of the Old Testament, which is the Septuagint, which was completed a few years before Christ, it translates almah uh as as as it if I can speak correctly and obviously in Greek, and it explicitly means virgin in Greek. This translation significantly influenced the New Testament writers, particularly Matthew, who quotes Isaiah seven fourteen in referenced to Jesus' birth. So some say that the septuagent, it uses a Greek word that clearly means virgin. I mean, there's no, it's not ambiguous in any way. It's unambiguous. It's very clear. And so some could argue, well, maybe the New Testament writers was borrowing from the septuagen and there seems to be cases in the New Testament where the New Testament writers do refer

22:34 to the septuagen. This raises all kinds of questions. We could get into all. See, it is complicated, I know. See, we don't want to get into all these complications. Critics argue that Matthew's use of the septuagent reflected a theological reading rather than the original meaning of the Hebrew text. However, proponents, if I can on here we go, AI is about to start talking to me, critics argue that Matthew's use of the septuagent reflect a phiological reading that an original meaning of the Hebrew text. However, proponents of traditional Christian interpretation argue that the septuagent translators were guided by an understanding of Almah as applying as implying virginity and its context, so there's In other words, some people say, wait a minute, the Hebrew doesn't is not the Hebrew uses Alma, which does not specifically mean virgin. There was a different Hebrew term.

23:33 They didn't use a different Hebrew term, so, but the septuagent did. So that means the New Testament writers was referencing the septuagen and it was not thinking about the original Hebrew. Right. Others are like, well, the septuagent they understood Alma. The septuagent translators understood Almah and Isaiah seven fourteen in the Hebrew manuscripts as meaning virgin. So really the septuagen translators show that that's how almost should be understood as virgin. So you could go all kinds of different ways here. The context of Isaiah seven fourteen presents challenges.

24:14 The historical context. This prophecy was given to King a Has of Judah as a sign of God's deliverance from the threat of the Syrian Israel Israelite coalition. This suggests that the prophecy had an immediate fulfillment, likely referring to a child Bir born during a Has this time, Hazekiah or another contemporary figure. That's the point I made. Look in the original context, Hey, hey, a has a virgin's gonna be a virgin's gonna give birth to a son. I mean, I know you're all gonna be dead, nobody here's gonna be witnessing it, and it's not going to have any help to you now, But just know that other Some say, well, that fits the context. Others that doesn't fit the context at all. What it demonstrates is that a child was born at that time. So maybe the why they used Almah is it could refer to a woman who wasn't a virgin and gives birth, conceives and gives birth like anyone else would, or it can refer to a virgin and where the New Testament writers takes it. And so maybe there was two stages to the prophecy, an immediate and a future. Maybe that's possible, all right. Many Christian theologians view this prophecy as having both an immediate fulfillment in Isaiah's time and a fuller ultimate fulfillment in the virgin birth of Christ. Critics of this view argue that such a reading imposes later Christian theology on the text. Well, it does impose Christian theology

25:48 on the text, I will agree, But the New Testament writers do that, or at least Matthew does that. So if the New Testament does that, and the New Testament's written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, then the Holy Spirit poses the idea on Isaiah. So then I think the dual fulfillment. If we believe the Bibles inspired by God, then the dual fulfillment seems to work. For Christians, the virgin birth is a cornerstone of crystal I can't read tonight. For Christians, the virgin birth is a cornerstone of Christology, affirming the divine origin of Jesus. However, the ambiguity in Isaiah seven fourteen provides room for offering for differing interpretations. Jewish interpretation. Most Jewish scholars understand Almah as referring to a young woman and do not see Isaiah seven fourteen as a Messianic prophecy. They argue that the text focuses on the historical situation of Ah has within Christianity.

26:48 Christians following Matthew's gospel see Isaiah seven fourteen as a prophetic foreshadowing of christ birth, with the septuagenous use of the its Greek word supporting this view. All right, So and now they do offer this, and that culture of Isaiah's time, a young woman of marriageable age would generally have been assumed to be a virgin. So Alma may have carried that connotation, even if it wasn't explicit. So I think there is some argument that at that time it would have just been assumed a woman at that age would have been a virgin. All right. Modern interpreters challenge traditional readings influenced by skepticism towards supernatural events like the virgin birth. This contributes to the ongoing debate about the text. What I'm trying to demonstrate here through all of that, and I hopefully that did not get to I did not confuse anybody, because I went through that relatively quick. The point I want to make is He's like, well, these people just complicate it for no reason. Now, if you read Isaiah seven fourteen, anyone just reading it would be like, wait a minute, here, wait a minute, Okay, we know the basic situation here in Isaiah seven effect, if you just look, if you go to Isaiah seven.

28:10 So I don't think this requires you to be a scholar. I don't think this requires you to write a commentary. You just look at Isaiah seven. And it came to pass in the days of Ahaz, the son of Jotham, the son of Usiah, king of Judah, that res in the king of Syria and Peca, the son of Ramalia, king of Israel, went up towards Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it. All right, so we have a historical setting clearly given to us. We have names, so we can we can date it to some specific to a specific time, we at least or at least a general time. So you can look up those names, look at when these people reigned. You can probably get a pretty good idea of when this is occurring. All right, So then you have the date, and then all of a sudden we have this. Therefore the Lord himself, she'll give you a sign. Behold a virgin. She'll conceive I'm Bearra's son, and she'll call his name Emmanuel. Now immediately you could be like, well, wait a minute, how does the virgin birth of Christ If we immediately assume Isaiah seven fourteen is about Christ, how does that help these people facing this conflict. That doesn't do anything for them. Hey, guys, I know you're in a difficult situation, all right, And we could argue whether he wants a sign, he rejects a sign. So, but it just seems so out of context that okay, so I'm going to give you this prophecy of the coming Messiah. But well, for them, that

29:40 would have done them no good in this particular situation. It would have seemed somewhat confusing. So you can anyone just reading could be asking that question, and then and then you could go, okay, the word virgin Almah, Okay, does it always refer to does it always refer to a virgin? Or does it can just refer to a woman of marriageable age, a young woman okay, a maiden. Well, it seems like it's possible. It doesn't have to be translated a virgin, but it is translated to virgin in some translation. Are I think most translations? Okay? Why, Well, maybe because of the Septuagint, maybe because of the New Testament. Maybe, right, I mean, we could get we could get into a lot of discussion, you know, which translations. That's not trying to make it complicated, all right, So then maybe maybe there is a dual fulfillment. There was there was some some woman had a child at this time that proved to be a sign for their situation, But a later fulfillment would come where someone would have a child, and well that child would be identified in the New Testament.

30:52 So there is some complication here. There's no reason in mocking it or or just ignoring it. Embrace the complication, embrace the difficulty, explain it to everyone, work through it. That's what church is supposed to be about. Remember, church is supposed to be about equipping saints, so they're no longer tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. Why don't we I don't understand why churches can't seem to accomplish that task from the pulpit and then basically mock anyone who tries to do so in a book, or they don't like podcasters who do it in a podcast. Well, maybe if the church could do its job, we wouldn't require the rest of us to come along and say, well, there is some complications here, there are some difficulties here.

31:42 It's okay to embrace that. So seeing Isaiah seven fourteen in light of Jesus' birth. It says God's word. This is the word of God, God's word. Isaiah seven fourteen says that a virgin shall conceive and bear a son. This is fulfilled in Matthew Matthew one eighteen, Matthew one twenty one through twenty three. Listen closely, Matthew one eighteen. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph. By the way, betrothed means a legal binding agreement. It's like being married.

32:28 Before they came together, y'all know what that means. She was found to be with child from the Holy spirit. What was conceived in hers from the Holy Spirit. Matthew one twenty one through twenty three. She will bear a son, and you should call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. And all this took place to fulfill what the Lord has spoken by the prophet. Guess who that prophet is. Isaiah. It says, behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son. That's the first part of the virgin shall conceive embarrass son, and she shall call his name Immanuel. That is fulfilled Matthew one three B. And they shall call his name Immanuel, which means God with us. That's pretty clear. Gee, I think about all those guys that wrote all those stick books.

33:24 They could have saved themselves a lot, ink. I don't get the mocking of people who write. They wrote the books to talk about all of these complications. I got no problem saying, hey, in the New Testament, it seems to clarify it. Yeah, I got no problem mentioning that. But you still want to deal with all the possible issues. You don't just ignore the issues. What is the deal? We're just gonna mock anyone who I don't know. Try to explain it. I get we're gonna mock. It's like mocking anyone who supposedly has an expert tease, or anyone who may have a little level of intelligence. We're going to mock them. I don't get it. I don't get it.

34:09 I don't get it. All right, let's continue. Well, anyway, Two names with deity written all over them. First, Emmanuel, prophetic fulfillment in the virgin birth of the Messiah. The name Emmanuel found three times in scripture Isaiah seven fourteen, Isaiah eight eight, and Matthew won twenty three. Matthew's quotation of Isaiah seven fourteen leaves absolutely no doubt that the Holy Spirit intended this to be a prophetic sign of the birth of Jesus to the Virgin Mary.

35:01 And let me make it very clear, I'm not arguing that the New Testament, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit is using it to point to Christ. Clearly no argument. That doesn't mean there couldn't have been a dual fulfillment, that there was some fulfillment that would fit the historical situation and there's one that comes later. And maybe that's why Alma is used instead of using the Hebrew word that would be unambiguous, referring to a Vergin. Maybe that's the reason why. Now I know that may complicate it, but it also may show some level of great brilliance there. Hey, there's two things going on here, something that would fit a has a situation and something that would come later.

35:45 Utilizing this same passage is referring to two things. Is that to me at least? Could we not? At least? I don't know? Is that complicating it? I don't think that's complicating it. In the name Emmanuel is the great mystery of godliness of the one who was revealed in the flesh, So Isaiah seven fourteen Matthew one twenty three. They are specific. They refer to a son born of a virgin, given the name Emmanuel, which means God with Us, that would come to Jesus. His name.

36:30 Jesus. That's the Greek pronunciation of Jesus Jesus. Jesus in the Greek is the equivalent to the Hebrew word the Hebrew name Yeshua Luke one thirty one. And you will. Conceive in your room and bear a son, and you should. Call his name Jesus. Jesus in the. Greek translation of the Old Testament, which is the Septuagint, is the symbol of the coming miss What does Messiah mean. Messiah means God's anointed, the anticipated king and deliverer who does what he brings salvation. So the Hebrew Yeshua the Greek Jesus both mean salvation. Now there's two texts that speak volumes about Jesus Emmanuel God with Us Luke to twenty one. At the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the Angel before he was conceived in the womb. And I love this one, Luke two twenty five through thirty two.

37:51 Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the com of Israel. And the Holy Spirit was upon him. And it had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ, the anointed One, the Messiah. And he came in the spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word. For my eyes had seen your salvation.

38:41 Now think about this. He is holding the Christ Child in his arms, and he is looking at salvation. Yeah. Man, I'll tell you what God's word is. Just Oh, I love it. So Jesus Emmanual Savior, the long anticipated Messiah salvation. For all people's jew and gentile alike. Isaiah seven fourteen speaks of a virgin literal, as in the case of Mary and the prophetic birth of the Messiah, Emmanuel God with us, the savior of mankind. So you know, you talk about the miracle of Christmas. Okay, here it is, folks.

39:30 Some people say, well, the real miracle of Christmas is the virgin conceiving, you know, the immaculate conception. Have you ever heard of that before. Don't get me wrong, that's a miracle. But did you just hear that He referred to Mary conceiving as the immaculate conception? Did you hear that? Let me back that up just a little bit. Let me back this up just a little bit. Let's listen to this again. So I have salvation for all people's jew and gentile alike. Isaiah seven fourteen speaks of a virgin literal as in the case of Mary, and the prophetic birth of the Messiah, Emmanuel God with us, the Savior of mankind.

40:21 So you know, you talk about the miracle of Christmas. Okay, here it is, folks. Some people say, well, the real miracle of Christmas is the virgin conceiving, you know, the immaculate conception. Have you ever heard of that before. Don't get me wrong, that's a miracle. But you want to know what the real miracle of Christmas is. So he wants to basically play down I want to, I don't want to say go so far say insult. But he almost kind of mocked those people who write thick books, and people who make it complicated, and all those people who write commentaries. But then he goes and refers to Mary conceiving Jesus as the immaculate conception. Now, you may have to read a thick book, which I have here, but let me just try to help you understand this. For some weird, bizarre reason, every year, when we arrive at Christmas season, the most wonderful time of the year, it seems common to hear non Catholic preachers mistakenly refer to the virgin birth or Mary conceiving Jesus as the immaculate conception. And this confusion stems from a misunderstanding of the term, all right, immaculate conception. In Roman Catholic theology, the immaculate conception refers to the belief that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was conceived without original sin. It

41:53 has nothing to do with the conception of Jesus. Let me state that for the nineteenth the billionth time, the oh This drives me crazy. The term immaculate conception refers to the belief that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was conceived without original sin and has nothing to do with the conception of Jesus. But pastor after pastor after pastor stands behind bulpits and talk about the immaculate conception of Mary conceiving Jesus. That is no, you have missed the entire point. That's not what the immaculate conception is. It's a theological term. It refers to the conception of Mary without original sin. That Mary was conceived without sin, that she had she did not have a sinful nature. Now we reject that teaching, so we should not be utilizing that term. Man. The virgin birth refers to the miraculous conception of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit and Mary, who was a virgin. The two concepts are entirely distinct.

43:05 They similar, and wording leads to frequent confusion. It shouldn't lead to any confusion. Don't use the term immaculate conception unless you are going to go into some lengthy explanation for why you're using the term. Again, the immaculate conception refers to the belief that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was conceived without original sin. She wasn't. She wasn't conceived, you know, by the holy spirit of a virgin. She was born her her mother and father came together and gave birth to her. But in her conception she was kept from being touched and being stained, or being and having a sinful nature, all the different ways you could try to word it. That's what the immaculate conception is referring to. See he play, he mocks those people who write thick books, and then he goes and makes an absolute categorical philological mistake. I don't know how you would describe it. Many non Catholics, particularly Protestants or evangelical preachers, may not be deeply familiar with nuances of Catholic theology.

44:22 Since the term immaculate conception sounds like it could relate to Jesus conception, they might assume that's what it means without further study. The phrase immaculate carries connotations of purity and perfection in everyday language. Preachers unfamiliar with the doctrinal definition might assume it refers to Jesus sinless nature. Of further reinforcing the mix up. The Immaculate conception is specifically a Catholic doctrine and is not taught and Protestant theology. Protestant preachers may encounter the term only occasionally and misunderstand it and associate it with the Christmas story rather than the actual philological context. Movies, books, and other popular level Christian content incorrectly uses the term interchangeably, contributing it to the spread of the misconception. Christian movies do this, Christian books do this, Christian radio does this. Pastors do this, preachers do this, and once again, there's the church we talk about. You got to have a church. You got to have the church. We've got to spend all this money to have churches, and then they spread completely misinformation.

45:34 That's not the correct understanding of it. From a philological and pastoral standpoint, there is little to no legitimate excuse for a pastor to confuse the immaculate conception with the virgin birth, particularly if the pastor has had any formal philological training. A pastor has a responsibility to handle the scripture doctrine accurately. Philological training, whether formal or informal, should equip pastors to understand and articulate the distinctions between key doctrines, even those outside of their own tradition. If a pastor misunderstands something as fundamental as the virgin birth, it reflects a lack of diligence and their study or preparation. I did not write that the virgin birth is a cornerstone of Christology and it's essential to understanding the incarnation of Christ.

46:27 Confusing it with the Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate Conception indicates a superficial understanding of both doctrines, which is inexcusable given their importance in Christian teaching. Even if a pastor lacks formal seminary training, the distinction between the two doctrines are widely available in philological dictionaries, commentaries, and online resources. Remember all of those things he mocked, those big thick books, and that people just make it all confusing with the prevalence of information, and there's no reason for a pastor not to research and clarify terms before preaching on them.

47:08 There's no reason to mess this up. Now, if you need to, you could pick up this really thick book that's almost a thousand pages long, and you could read this paragraph four hundred and ninety. To become the mother of the Savior, Mary was enriched by God with gifts appropriate to such a role. The Angel Gabriel at the moment of the annunciation salutes her as full of grace. In fact, in order for Mary to be able to give the free assent of her faith to the announcement of her vocation, it was necessary that she be wholly born by God's grace. Through the centuries, the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, full of grace through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. This is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses. This was proclaimed in eighteen fifty four, and I quote, the most blessed Virgin Mary was from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of Almighty God, and by virtue of the merits of Jesus, Christ's savior of the human race, was preserved immune from all stain of original sin. That is what the Immaculate Conception refers to, not Mary conceiving Jesus, but Mary being conceived without sin,

48:42 without original sin. That's what it's referring to. And it is something special because she was conceived in a normal way. Jesus was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, and therefore he was God in the flesh without a sinful nature. It's a completely separate thing. So while in a sermon where he kind of mocks those who write big thick books and he doesn't understand why they make it so confusing, and they just like to make it confusing or they won't be able to write their big thick books, well, he kind of makes fun or mocks them. I don't know the right words you may want to use.

49:24 I don't want to make it, you know, I don't want to be fair. But at the same time, it's almost ironic that he goes then refers to uses the term immaculate conception in a way that's absolutely not even close to being correct. And I've had to correct this. I feel like I have been correcting this now and this is probably no lie. I think I started correcting people on this as a teenager. That's a long time. And every year some pastor some some Christian radio station just hands me the opportunity, like you got to once again correct this, and it doesn't matter you can email the pastors, you can email churches and say would just stop using the term incorrect. We don't care. Basically, we don't care. We don't care. We don't care. We don't care, we don't care, we don't care. Okay, well, great that the place is supposed to equip people so they'll no longer be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine.

50:25 Doesn't care when they use a term. Now, I'm not saying this. The one we're listening to doesn't care. I'm not saying that. I'm saying that this has been my experience in the past. Is just confusing. So let me make it very clear. Immaculate conception refers to the belief that Marry, the mother of Jesus, was conceived without original sin. It has nothing to do with the conception of Jesus. The virgin birth refers to the miraculous conception of Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit and Mary, who was a virgin. The two concepts are entirely distinct. There is no excuse that we keep making these mistakes. Now. Is Christmas the most wonderful time of the year. Well, for some people it's not. They've got some emotional baggage, they've got some things, they've got some tragedy in their past, and it makes it difficult. Then you've got the never ending debate within Christianity about it's pagan, it's Catholic, it's this, it's that, it's this, it's that. I'm not going to celebrate it.

51:42 I'm going to approve a point. I'm not going to do anything. I'm not going to remember the incarnation on December the twenty fifth because that's a bad Well then it Well, if December the twenty fifth is the wrong day, which day are you going to pick? Because every day it's associated with something. Just look at the days of the week, the days of our months, they all trace back to, in many cases pagan terms and pagan concepts. So just it's a day on a calendar. If I use December twenty fifth to remember the incarnation of Christ, you can't accuse me of doing anything pagan because I'm remembering something in the Bible and I'm just using that day to do so. But of course Christians will argue about that fight over it. Don't do this, don't do that, don't have a Christmas tree, don't do this. Don't sing this, don't do this, don't drink any eggnog, don't do this, don't do this. Oh my goodness, five fight, fight, fight, five fight. You just get sick of it, so that destroys it being the most wonderful time of the year.

52:34 So I've often said I can't give me a holiday where Christians aren't arguing and fighting. Thanksgiving, at least, for the most part, Christians aren't fighting too much about it, right, because you can just eat food and watch football. Christians are all good with that. Studying the incarnation of Christ on Christmas Day, Oh that's pagan. You can eat all the foods you want, watch football. That's good to go. But oh, how dare you want to celebrate the incarnation of Christ on December the twenty fifth in a church? Oh my goodness, you're probably a pagan. So weird how some Christians do things. And then even if you get past all of that, and you're like, I made it through all of that unscathed. I don't have anything in my past. So Christmas is great. I don't have to worry about Christians fighting. Great. Well, then you just may get irritated by just the immaculate concer. What are you doing?

53:29 You go to church to get confused. Now there's a deeper thing here which connects to our last broadcast. See this is why within the Protestant world we don't believe pastors in the church has authority, right because if they had authority, I wouldn't be able to correct it, would I their authority to teach? It's just what I agree with. Now in this particular case, it's not about what I agree with or disagree with. This is just a factual error. Okay, this is just a factual This has nothing to do with it. You can grab the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

54:14 That's the book I was reading from. I don't think I've ever identified it, but paragraph four ninety four ninety one those are the two paragraphs. It goes all the way to four ninety five if you really want to to dig into it. But you can look it up Catholic Catechism, paragraph four ninety You can look it up online. You know there you have it. You can look up there. But there's there's a church making a claim, a dogmatic assertion about what the Immaculate Conception was, and it's just one hundred percent factually in error, meaning therefore, then the church demonstrates as Christians that the church is not infallible, therefore it's fallible. So if it's fallible, then it's up to you, the listener, to determine whether it's true or false, meaning then really the responsibility is on you, which is kind of weird. You go to church to supposedly be equipped, but you also have to go to church to listen and then determine if what you're being told is true or false. So really, you go to church. You actually give money to the church so you can go and then do the work to determine if what's being preached is true or false. So you've got to do all of this study so that you're ready to listen to what's preached to determine whether it's true or false. So do you go to the church to get equipped or do you go to a church equipped so that you can determine with what is preached is true or false.

55:34 If you have the responsibility to determine what is true and false, you have to arrive at church already equipped because you can't trust their equipping. You're the one who is supposed to be judging if the equipping is true or false, that's a confounding system in the Protestant world. Now, I am not defending the teaching of the immaculate concept. I'm simply arguing for us to correctly define it and correctly know what it is so that we don't utilize the same term. You can have some Catholic person and some Protestant person, and I've seen the conversations before and not Yeah, it's just funny. You have the Catholic say something about themculate conception. You'll have some non Catholic going, we believe that too, and I'm like, oh, crying out loud.

56:30 And so then I'll have to walk up to them. You told that Catholic that you believe in the immaculate conception. They'll be like yeah, and I'm like, are you sure? Do you know what the immaculate conception? Yeah, Jesus born of a virgin. Oh, for crying out loud, that's not what it refers. And then you explained they're like, we don't believe that. I'm like, I know, so well, my pastor mentions, Okay, well there we go, there we go. So I've done my yearly duty of once again addressing this never, never dying issue, and even and I even asked Ai about this. Ai stated that it's relatively common to hear non Catholic preachers mistakenly refer to the virgin birth of Christ as the immaculate conception, and this confusion stems from a misunderstanding of the terms. So AI even says, it's common for it to happen. That's ridiculous, ladies and gentlemen, that's ridiculous. How can it be common? I just give up.

57:47 See it's not the most wonderful time of the year. Now, Jesus, the eternal Son of God, born of a virgin, became flesh, kept the law for you and me, our sins imputed to him. He suffers and dies paying for our sin. And then by faith his obedience to the law, his righteousness is imputed to me, and the payment for my sin has been taken care of. That is a wonderful message. That is wonderful. That is the most wonderful, not just time of the year. That's the most wonderful time of your love of everything. That God sent his son to pay for my sins, to die for me, and by keeping the law for me, his obedience is imputed to my account. So I can stand before God and be declared that which I'm not. I can be declared to be perfect and righteous, even though practically I'm not. There is that's wonderful. Now, if we just take our hands off all of it, it could still remain wonderful. But then, well, we live in a fall and broken world where there's pain, suffering, death, loneliness, abandon and mint and that can impact your Christmas. And you live in a world with Christians where everyone, I mean, I was in a part of Abilene today and within it's like a block, within a block, there were seven churches within basically a block. There was like one here,

59:21 one here, there was like seven seven churches I think within almost the same block, maybe a block and a half. I mean, if I really want to push it, I guess maybe two blocks. Seven churches within like a two block radius. Ladies and gentlemen, that's ridiculous. And all those churches think that they're right. They all think they're teaching is right, they all think they're authoritative. Nobody can agree on anything, which can just make Christmas even more maddening. Because we're supposed to be celebrating this beautiful story and we can't even agree. No, we don't do it on December the twenty fifth. No it's pagan. No don't, oh, just forget it, just stop it. I'll just go hang out with some Satanist And then if you get past all of that, as of are now repeated multiple times, you just come up with something. This may seem trivial, like in the big picture, it maybe is trivial. He used the term immaculate conception to refer to something that doesn't refer to It seems trivial, but it isn't trivial because it gives a completely misunderstanding. It's like philological malpractice.

1:00:28 You're just messing everything all up. So to me, it's important. If we can't get that right, If you can't get that right, then should we believe anything else? He said right? I mean he talked about the Greek term for Jesus, the Hebrew term for Jesus. Should we believe that? I mean, I mean, I see what I'm saying. It just calls into question everything. Now. I understand pastors can misspeak. I'm miss in this message. I don't even know how many times I misspoke, multiple times. I think I kept saying. I think at the beginning I said when I said Christmas, I think I may have said Christian. I don't know.

1:01:10 I think at one point when I said Isaiah, I was saying Hebrews. So I messed up multiple times. Anyone can misspeak, so you have to show grace, right, But it's not even about this sermon. It's about that I've been dealing with this my entire Christian life, year after year after year after year. This is just an example that was sent to me. I could go find countless examples if I want them, So it's not about this particular sermon. And again, preachers can misspeak. You can just say immaculate conception when you don't mean immaculate conception. To me, it's a weird term to utilize mistakenly, Okay, unless you just had read something about the immaculate conception. But if you just read something about the immaculate conception, then you wouldn't be using it that way. So it's just a weird term to to wrongly insert. But people can make mistakes.

1:02:03 I am the king of making mistakes. I mean, if you listen to me, I misspeak frequently, right, I always try to catch myself and correct it by the end, so it can happen. But once you realize it, you got to come back and correct it. You got to make sure the people in your church knows. This is what the immaculate conception is, this is what the incarnation is, this is what the immaculate conception is, this is what the virgin birth is like. Make sure they understand why, so they will not be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine. That's what the church is supposed to be doing. That's why you give all of that money each year to a church to operate. All right, I'm going to stop there. Thank you for listening. I hope it will be the most wonderful time of year for you. If it is. If it isn't, I full understand for all of the reasons I have now repeated multiple times. If we can set all of that aside, there is something wonderful we can grab onto. Thank you for listening, and God bless